It has until recently been generally believed that the efficacy of discharge lamps inevitably decreases as the lamp size or wattage is reduced. As a result of this view, discharge lamps for general lighting applications have not been developed in miniature sizes. However in the pending application of Daniel M. Cap and William H. Lake, Ser. No. 912,628, filed June 5, 1978, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,672, granted July 17, 1979, titled "High Pressure Metal Vapor Discharge Lamps of Improved Efficacy", which is assigned like this application, new miniature discharge lamps having envelope volumes of about 1 cubic centimeter or less are disclosed. These lamps have ratings starting at about 100 watts and going down to less than 10 watts. They utilize fillings preferably comprising mercury and metal halides, and have characteristics including life durations making them suitable for general lighting purposes. Despite the low input wattage, ratios of arc watts to electrode watts similar to those in larger sizes of lamps are maintained by increasing the mercury vapor pressure at the same time as the discharge volume is decreased. It is necessary to maintain the desired electrode temperature with the reduced energy input, and this is achieved primarily by reducing the physical size of the electrodes and inleads in order to reduce the heat loss from them. The very small size of these electrodes poses severe design and manufacturing problems of a different kind than those encountered with electrodes for conventional size lamps.